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Climate News – Brazil Announces Ambitious and Inspiring Goals for COP30

This year, Brazil will host the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

We welcome the inspiring words shared by COP30’s president-designate, His Excellency Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, Secretary for Climate, Energy, and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Federative Republic of Brazil. In a letter circulated to parties and NGO Constituency Focal Points (such as us), His Excellency expressed that “now is the time we leave behind inertia, individualism, and irresponsibility to embrace the best versions of ourselves through creativity, solidarity, and perseverance.” 

He also eloquently stated the urgency of addressing climate change and its impacts – which underpins TRI’s mission: 

“We have long known the scale and gravity of climate change and its growing impacts.  

We have affirmed and reaffirmed global warming as an existential threat to humankind.  

We have had scientific knowledge on the issue for over 35 years, consolidated since the first 1990 IPCC assessment report.  

Now, not only do we hear about climate risks, but we also live the climate urgency. Climate change is no longer contained in science and international law. It has arrived at our doorsteps, reaching our ecosystems, cities, and daily lives. From Siberia to the Amazon, from Porto Alegre to Los Angeles, it now affects our families, health, cost of living, and routines in education, work, and entertainment. Images of climate disasters and human suffering invade our living rooms on TV and on social media, as we rapidly enter a dangerous zone in which the rich in developed and developing countries isolate themselves behind climate-resilient walls.”

—His Excellency Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, Secretary for Climate, Energy, and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Federative Republic of Brazil

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Dr. Sara Walsh is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer Alison Criscitiello explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Criscitiello’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Criscitiello has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. Criscitiello is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.